It's new there. The crowd is starting to appreciate the wrestling side of it as well. Australia is a big kickboxing society. All they are used to see in standup but now they are starting to understand that it's a whole different ballgame on the ground and they can appreciate it.

Pride :

Did they boo when it first went to the ground?

Matt :

At first. That's if it was boring because they didn't understand it. Now, it's crazy!

Pride :

On the ground, are you more position oriented or submission oriented?

Matt :

I'll take whatever's there. If there's a submission there that I feel comfortable taking, I'll go for it.

Pride :

What's your favorite submission?

Matt :

I like arms, legs, necks, no favorite.

Pride :

What do you think about your opponent?

Matt :

He doesn't have much stamina at all. He comes out hard and fast for the first two minutes, runs out of gas and just sits there. What we did like about him was that even if he gets tired, he will still try to stay busy.

Pride :

You're big, too. How do think your conditioning is?

Matt :

This will be my first time because Spartan is 3, 5-minute rounds. This will be my first 10-minute round fight.

Pride :

What do you do for conditioning?

Matt :

Roll with my brother. Also gym work.

Pride :

What brought you to MMA?

Matt :

Watching Kazushi Sakuraba. He's amazing and so hard to predict with the cartwheels and Mongolian chops.

Pride :

Is there one person you'd like to pattern you style after?

Matt :

I'd like to be the first Matt.

Pride :

Knowing that Emelianenko's brother is the Heavyweight Champion, are you anticipating a standup war with him?

Matt :

I anticipate that he's going to come out hard and fast, trying to end it quickly.

Pride :

So you are looking to see what he does first?

Matt :

Yeah. No disrespect to his other opponents but they had limited standup skills. They didn't push away the way I will. Hitting hard, fast and all the time. He's got a sambo background so I expect him to try to take me to the ground. Being short and squat like I am, and playing a lot of rugby, hopefully that will help.